St. Augustine Artists are getting Down to Business

Successful Business & Accounting Basics Workshop offered by SJCC

St. Augustine, Florida – The Business and Accounting Basics workshop for artists and art organizations on July 21^st was a great success. Back by popular demand, this workshop was organized by the St. Johns Cultural Council and offered for free to anybody in the art world looking to launch or improve the organization of their business. As before, Ms. Louise Anderson gave a comprehensible overview of the subject that many artists avoid or approach with reluctance.

Ms. Anderson is a CPA with Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC, an accounting and business advising firm with offices in St. Augustine and Gainesville. She provides consulting and tax services to small businesses and individual clients in the Northeast Florida area. She has a formidable list of credentials and her clients benefit from her educational approach to accounting and consulting. 

Ms. Anderson told her audience that she “could talk forever because I find the subject fascinating,” which showed, as she answered all in-depth art questions from individual artists with ease, pre-empting a few with “I am not an artist, I so wish I was.” 

She mostly explained the differences between the various business models to choose from and kept the information concise. She gave short definitions of Sole Proprietorships, Single-Member and Multi-Member LLCs, C-Corporations versus S-Corporations, how to establish each of them, and what the advantages and disadvantages are for artists. She briefly touched on the taxation regulations for each model and gave some helpful tips and links for recordkeeping and accounting. The most important take-away for the audience was to “Keep track! Documentation is critical. Keep all receipts!”

One of the many attendees, Ms. Sally Paulson, was very pleased with the information she received in the workshop. She wrote to Ms. Hala Laquidara, the Business Development Coordinator for the SJCC and diligent organizer of the workshops, “I certainly appreciate the workshops you have been putting together for artists. Today was the third one I was able to attend. I always go away from the sessions rejuvenated and full of ideas from what the speakers have addressed.” She said she is looking forward to the next workshop offered by SJCC.